Senate candidate Kamala Harris made her first official statement regarding her campaign, defending her early launch in an interview with the Los Angeles Times’ Seema Mehta published yesterday.
“California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris said Wednesday that she makes ‘no apologies’ for an aggressive U.S. Senate campaign that some fellow Democrats have ‘omplained is aimed at keeping others, notably a Latino candidate, out of the race.
“I have always entered races early and run hard, and that’s what I’ve done in this race,’ Harris said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, her first since announcing her Senate bid. ‘I make no apologies for it.’”
State Senator Isadore Hall (D-Compton) has announced his intention to run for a congressional seat next year. Hall won his senate seat just under three months ago in a December special election.
From Laurel Rosenhall at the Sacramento Bee: “The Compton Democrat will run for Congressional seat now held by Rep. Janice Hahn, who plans to run for a seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors next year.
“’I’m running for the 44th Congressional district seat to continue Congresswoman Hahn’s legacy of fighting for disadvantaged and middle class families, and to give a voice to those without one,’ Hall said in a statement.’
University of California officials have postponed a proposed tuition increase, citing ongoing negotiations between UC President Janet Napolitano and Governor Jerry Brown. Alexei Koseff has the story at the Sacramento Bee.
Amid ongoing budget discussions with the state, the University of California has postponed a proposed 5 percent tuition increase from summer quarter until the fall.
“’We are doing this as a good-faith gesture, optimistic that the ongoing negotiations will bear fruit,’ UC President Janet Napolitano said during a speech Wednesday at the University of Southern California, according to remarks provided by a spokesman. ‘As a matter of fairness, we want potential summer quarter students to enroll free from any uncertainty and unpredictability inherent in a fluid and still unresolved budget situation.’
“UC approved a controversial tuition plan last November that would allow the university to raise tuition by up to 5 percent annually for each of the next five years unless the state kicks in more money than already promised. Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed an increase of $119 million to UC’s state funding next year, but the university is seeking an additional $100 million to ‘buy out’ the tuition hike.”
The news out of Assemblywoman Nora Campos’ (D-San Jose) office continues to get uglier, with San Jose Inside’s Josh Koehn digging deeper on a story that began circulating last week.
“Steve Harmon, a former Bay Area News Group reporter who spent 26 years in journalism and the last 19 months working as Campos’ spokesman, granted interviews last week on the tumult that has taken place behind closed doors.
“Fired in January, Harmon said that Campos’ chief of staff, Sailaja Rajappan, in particular, has created a ‘toxic’ and ‘hostile’ work environment in which a turnstile of employees were unfairly blamed for mistakes, routinely berated in public and eventually fired. A Bay Area News Group report noted that 46 employees have worked in Campos’ office in just four years. San Jose Inside spoke with Harmon about his time in the office in greater detail.
“’[Rajappan] runs that show,’ he said. ‘Campos is absentee. This isn’t to absolve Campos. Campos enables it all. But Sailaja runs that shop, and she is responsible for the terrible, low morale.’
“…It appears the Assembly’s Committee on Rules meted no discipline in response to [complaints], Harmon said, perhaps because the policies on such behavior are intentionally vague.
“’The rules folks made it clear—unless you’re slapped or hit physically or (sexually) harassed … they can treat you any way they want,’ Harmon said.”
You might want to get some popcorn – this is only gonna get uglier.
And, a close call for newsie John Hrabe of Calnewsroom, who seems to have made it out of a nasty rollover wreck with no significant issues. His car, not so much. John, glad you are OK!
And, today marks the 70th anniversary of the beginning of Operation Detachment, one of the fiercest battles of World War II, fought on the tiny Japanese island of Iwo Jima.
The battle lasted over a month, pitting 70,000 Americans against 22,000 entrenched Japanese soldiers. The battle is perhaps best known for the famous Joe Rosenthal photo of six US Marines raising a flag on Mount Suribachi. The photo has inspired sculpture, memorials, paintings, films and multiple books.
But, after nearly 70 years of iconic status, some historians now wonder if there was a mistake in the identification of one of the six flag raisers.
“You have seen this photo because on Feb. 23, 1945, in the middle of one of the fiercest battles of World War II, a group of U.S. Marines carried a flag up the highest peak on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima. As six men struggled to plant the flagpole into the ground, an Associated Press photographer, who was worried he would miss the shot, clicked his shutter without even looking through his viewfinder. You have seen this photo because it's one of the most famous photos in American history.
“Eric [Krelle]has stared at this photo for hours. He has zoomed in on the black-and-white image until he can see the creases in the men's helmet covers and can study the unique shapes of their noses. He has combed through dozens of other photos taken that day atop Iwo Jima's Mount Suribachi. He has watched a film clip of the famous flag raising so many times he has each frame memorized….
“Since 1947, the identities of the half-dozen young men raising this flag have been undisputed, six names known to the Marine Corps and to military historians in the same way the rest of us know that the flag they are raising is red, white and blue.
“But disputing the undisputed is exactly what Eric is doing. After months of research, he is standing in this classroom and arguing that a famous medic, long identified as the Navy corpsman standing smack in the middle of the famous photo, is in fact not in the photo at all.”
Either way: Semper Fi.
